------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's introduction:
I've been waiting a long time for this story. So have several other
people. In fact, this story has been so long in writing that during its
production, antsy artists put together five portraits of one of its
leading characters - a record, as far as I know, for fanart received for
an original 'fic character who has not yet appeared in a 'fic.
There's a reason for that, though. Monsieur Hosmer's excellent at
ambience and personality, and the dastardly duo below has plenty of
both. (He teased the R2096 contributors in general for months with the
rough draft of the prologue.) Jeff's also reprised his well-received
Perdita and Shampoo portraits, this time bringing the two in at the same
time.
Hrm... What else to say? Read. Enjoy. Comment. Let us know if
anything's confusing, ambiguous, or just Not Right - I'm in the plotting
stages of a story centering around the featured couple, and so have a
vested interest in any related nitpicks on what follows.
Once again, for visual stimulation:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Bistro/2653/autolyca.htm
and
http://qlink.queensu.ca/~4cw6/sicarii.htm
-CW
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/
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| \ | \ /\ | | /\ /\ | \ / /\
| \ | \ . | \ | |. / \_/ \ | \ \ / \
| __ \ | _ \ | | | | | | | _ \ /\ \/ /
| | \ \ | | \ \ .| | | |.| | | | \ \ / \ \ /
| | / / | |__\ | | | \| | | |\ /| |.| |__\ |/ / \/
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| |/ / .| ___ |.| |.| |.| |.| | | | | ___ /\ \/ /
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|_|. \__\ |_|. .|_|.|_|...\/..|_|.|_|.|_|.|_|. \|_| \
/\ \ /
Created by Christopher Willmore. / \ \ /
<4cw6@qlink.queensu.ca> / / \/
Based on a story by Rumiko Takahashi and /
Developed by C. Michael Schumacher / /
\ /
R2096 pages: http://qlink.queensu.ca/~4cw6/ \/(Logo:Armakuni)
========================================================================
Kagami
========================================================================
By Jeff Hosmer
<jhosmer@ix.netcom.com>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Vices, I would say, sir. I know this man well: he
hath been since an ape-bearer; then a
process-server, a bailiff; then he compassed a
motion of the Prodigal Son, and married a tinker's
wife within a mile where my land and living lies;
and, having flown over many knavish professions, he
settled only in rogue: some call him Autolycus."
-Autolycus, in William Shakespeare's
'The Winter's Tale', Act IV, Scene 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROLOGUE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autolyca prowled the halls of the Kunou Foundation, smiling like a
cat that has an alibi for the time and place of the canary's
disappearance. Indeed, with her enlarged canines, her smile almost
resembled that of a cat, of the saber-tooth variety.
She was wearing a skin-tight outfit all in black that left almost
nothing to the imagination. That was one reason for her good humor.
The new suit was leaps and bounds ahead of her old one, using some of
the latest in KF technology. It went on loose, then snapped to fit with
the press of a wrist button. It was temperature controlled and could
act as thermoptic camouflage if needed. Also it felt like latex against
her naked skin and had a few other little options that she had wanted.
Kunou Foundation employees paid her no attention as she passed. It
was not that she was ugly. Quite the opposite held true, in fact. Her
body was slender, but curvy in the right places. She slunk through the
halls with a lazy grace that was extremely pleasing to the eye. Her
hair was perhaps her least-attractive feature, snarled like Medusa's
snakes, and several long locks hung limply in front of her face. But
this was not what put people off.
It was her eyes. They were a brilliant green, far too vibrant to
be natural. However, the color suited her for those eyes were lit by
the flames of madness. They lazily swept the path in front of her until
someone moved into her field of vision. Then they locked on and her
smile grew sharper, showing the tips of her fangs.
She giggled as one particularly handsome man darted away with
unseemly haste. She rolled her tongue over her teeth, feeling a
perverse satisfaction as the steel stud that pierced it clacked against
her fangs. She was fond of body piercing, having four earrings in each
ear.
Her smile widened again as someone special came into her view. The
person in question was clad in blue and black body armor with a
bandolier of throwing spatulas across his chest and a very large spatula
slung over his shoulder.
"Heya, Sabes. How's it hanging, bro?" she purred, stepping
directly in front of him so he had to stop or run her down. The
narrowing of his eyes suggested that the latter possibility would have
been his preferred course of action.
Autolyca paid no mind to his expression and blatantly put her hand
on his crotch. "Hmm, a little to the left?" She tapped it, producing a
hollow sound from the armor he wore. "Nice and stiff, though, just like
the rest of you," she said.
"Do you have some business with me, Autolyca?" Sable asked.
"'If the springe hold, the cock's mine,'" she quoted. Seeing the
look of confusion this generated, she sighed. "Oh, brother dearest, you
must learn to lighten up a bit."
"I am not your brother."
"Half-brother, if you must be technical."
"I am not your half-brother, either."
"For shame. Do we not share a father?" She ran one hand over his
back. "We could share a lot more." She leaned closer to whisper
another quotation, "'O, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags; and
then, death, death!'"
Sable's puzzled look evoked another laugh from her. He frowned,
upset at himself for losing control of the situation and at her for
getting such delight out of provoking him. "I have duties that require
me elsewhere. State your business."
"Oh, I know all about your duties, bro," she said. "And I know
quite a few other things, too. I may even tell you a few of them, for a
kiss." She puckered her lips outrageously.
"It would not be proper," Sable said.
"Oh, you and your rules, rules, rules. Rules, Sabey-poo, are made
to be broken, dontcha know?"
"Do not call me 'Sabey-poo,'" Sable growled.
"Whoo, the Iceman melteth! You may yet be a man, brother dearest.
I would love to help you find out for certain. My room, in an hour?"
"I will waste no more time with you." Determined to end this
conversation, Sable began to walk away.
Autolyca let him take several steps past her and then, without
turning around, called out, "Have you been watching Cousin Rat, brother
dearest?"
Sable stopped and turned. "Project R is none of our concern,
Autolyca."
"It seems that he's taken an interest in 'Mommy' lately. Called up
everything he could find on her. Given the past history of the family
with her, I can only wonder if history is going to repeat itself. It
might be nice to have some siblings..."
"The Executress has things under control." With that, Sable walked
away.
"Does she now?" Autolyca asked, playing idly with a greasy strand
of hair.
"I think we should kill him," said a voice from the shadows nearby.
One of the hall lights was out, creating a surprisingly dark patch in
the otherwise brilliantly lit hall.
"Now, now, Sicky, that wouldn't be half as much fun," Autolyca
pouted. "Sabey-poo is much more fun to tease. 'Ha, ha! what a fool
Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman!' Or
are you just upset because he's been following your 'sister?'"
The shadows seemed to erupt at that moment, spilling forth a small,
thin girl with pale skin, ebony hair, and dark makeup around her eyes.
In one hand she held a Tibetan dagger, a p'ur'pa, that seemed tarnished
with darkness. Green light flickered around it as she held it to
Autolyca's throat.
"And if I disagree?" Sicarii asked in a venomous tone.
"That," Autolyca answered, never letting her gaze move from
Sicarii's eyes, "is your prerogative, of course." The two stood there,
motionless for several seconds. Blood began to drip down the p'ur'pa's
blade from where Sicarii had nicked Autolyca's throat. Then the
Assassin pulled the blade back. She regarded the blood staining the
dark blade and then slowly licked it off. "Alright, I'll follow your
lead with him... for now."
"I expect little else from you, love," Autolyca said. She then
grabbed Sicarii's hair with one hand and drew her forward into a kiss,
tasting her own blood in the Assassin's mouth. The coppery taste
excited her, got her blood flowing for the night's revels.
"Come, now," she said at last, when they had broken the kiss, "the
night is young. Tis past time for our fun."
Laughing, the two strode off, arm-in-arm.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shampoo
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hate Jusenkyo.
I thought I had won. I thought that I had paid its price, escaped
its bounds, broken free of its chains. I thought that I had finally
succeeded. I thought I had suffered enough.
Jusenkyo laughed at my conceptions of pain.
He knows. He knows everything I did. He knows I lied to him. I
have screamed until my voice is gone, cried until there are no more
tears. I wanted nothing more than that he live again. All I asked was
that he never know, never comprehend the depths to which I sank for him.
All of us who are left, all of us who have taken a place in the tapestry
are scarred and broken... except him. I wanted him to keep that
innocence.
The tapestry mocks me now.
I see it more clearly than ever, as my grip on reality fades. No
idle metaphor, that. As sanity fades, there is the same sense of panic,
the adrenaline coursing through your veins, the emptiness in the stomach
and feeling of your legs kicking over the abyss... it's all there.
I wonder why I even bother to hold on.
Akane has taken back her place. I should have seen it as
inevitable. Ukyou and Ryouga are somewhere nearby, as well. Ranma will
encounter them in time. They cannot escape him, even if they mean to.
Nabiki... the weakest of the Tendos, now can beat me. She has her part.
And Mousse, whose life I sought to spare, whom I sent away to find a
happiness I could not... would not... give him has reached beyond the
grave to spite me.
Was our daughter why he hated me so much to do this? Or is this a
final act of blindness on his part, a constitutional unwillingness to
see the natural consequences of his actions?
I must be slipping further than I thought. I am beginning to sound
like Kunou.
He confronted me, of course. My love was never one for lies or
deception. No, that was left to us. Myself and Kodachi. She is gone,
at least, but her madness, like that of her brother's, has reached
beyond the grave.
I looked into his eyes and there was my worst fear... revulsion...
anger... pity. The last was the most damning. How dare he pity me?
How detached everything is now. I truly don't care anymore...
about anything. My body is lying on the floor of the Nekohanten,
rocking back and forth in catatonic (hah!) misery. Like Cologne, my
body will not die when it should.
I have come full circle. I almost expect Kasumi to slap me again,
to find that the entire century I suffered took place in a blink of the
eye between the news Ranma was dead and that first slap. But it wasn't
a dream of my fevered brain. There is nothing so pleasant in store for
me.
How long will I live? A century? Two? The nightmares, black and
horrible, are coming for me. They lurk outside the dwindling light of
sanity.
Perhaps I will follow Ukyou's example. How much of Tokyo could I
destroy before they brought me down? It wouldn't do for her to exceed
me in anything... not even madness.
Perhaps he would stop me. I would feel one last loving embrace
from him as his hands encircle my neck... it would be just retribution,
for the countless times I snapped his body's neck. I can feel the hands
there now, see his eyes, burning with that horrible pity, his mouth
moving (though I cannot understand his words) asking me to stop. Silly
Ranma, things can never go back to the way it was. You saw to that.
The tapestry is tearing. Does he know that? He opened the way
when he destroyed his spring. Evil. The magic has been loosed, freed
from the bounds of Jusenkyo. He brought it here.
Or perhaps I brought it here.
I do not know everything. A hundred years is not enough to truly
understand Jusenkyo. To everyone else, it seems that the evil of this
Tokyo has been building for years. I feel it pressing down on me. But
I also know that Jusenkyo is at the heart of it all. Perhaps the
spirits there have been planning this for a long time. Now, Ranma is
their agent. They seek to use him for some end I cannot see.
They are not alone. Blots exist on the tapestry. The young
Gosunkugi is involved. Ryouga and Ukyou are blocking another tear that
may or may not be stopped. A third evil is aimed at me. There is more
I cannot see.
I care not. I lie here, home again. Here I will die.
"Pathetic."
The unexpected voice is followed by a swift kick that catches me in
the side. Pain blossoms along my rib cage. A crack. I gasp, but I
feel nothing much. My mind is in agony far exceeding my worthless
body's. Still, reflexes honed by a century of practice, bring me to my
feet.
"I was expecting," my tormentor said, "to find a powerful
sorceress, and instead, I find a whimpering ball of dung."
I looked at her and a faint gasp escaped my lips. Nabiki? But she
was not the half-robot I had fought. That was the Nabiki I knew... a
creature of logic and cold ruthlessness, of order and reason. Crafty
and manipulative, yes, but Nabiki was one for rules and clockwork within
clockwork. Intuitive, but only to a point. She could see patterns in
chaos, not the chaos in patterns.
The Nabiki that stood before me was an embodiment of chaos. The
evil had found me. She was still young, as I was not. Was there no one
else in this tapestry who had not been able to escape time's clutches?
Yes, my mind told me. The dead ones.
Her hair was not the short and practical cut that Nabiki favored.
Instead, greasy locks coiled in serpentine locks around a face lit with
the fires of madness. Her eyes were twin green flames, flames that
seemed to want to escape her eyes like a demon trapped in a holy ward.
I snapped a kick off at her midsection, but she danced back,
letting the tip of my toe barely graze her, mocking my sloth, my lack of
coordination. I cursed my aging body. Once again, it was letting me
down. It wouldn't even die for me.
Why fight? You might as well ask an Amazon why she breathes.
"Oooh, made you mad, did I? Yeah, that's it," she crooned, licking
her lips. I could see familiar fangs in her mouth. Two old 'friends'
in one package. How economical. "Fight me like you mean it!"
I called upon the skills I had mastered, the ones that I had once
paid such a price for... loneliness, loss of childhood, exile. My blows
were not the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken. I am built more for strength
than speed. Still, they were impressively fast, a hail of blows aimed
at her smirking face.
She caught them effortlessly.
"The skill is there, but the flesh is aged, weak, isn't it?" she
mocked. Then her hands bent mine backwards. I gasped. No human could
manage that grip. Technology had once again proved my undoing. The
bones in my wrists snapped, and the fake Nabiki smiled even wider as she
twisted them, making the broken bones grate against each other. I would
not scream. I would not scream.
"'When daffodils begin to peer, / With heigh! the doxy over the
dale, / Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year, / For the red blood
reigns in the winter's pale!'" she sang. Nonsense. Madness. Mocking
me.
"Who ARE you?" I gasped out. I sank down to the ground, but I
still stood. My legs were shaky and my hands useless, still captured in
her iron grip, but I would not kneel. I was the last true Amazon. If I
was to die in battle and not madness, I would meet it as an Amazon. A
trifle, perhaps, considering I was willing to die dishonorably in
madness... but I wanted to die. Dying at the hands of an enemy was just
a more acceptable form... I could thank my foe for making this so easy
for me.
"'My father named me Autolyca; who being, as I am, littered under
Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With die and
drab I purchased this caparison, and my revenue is the silly cheat,'"
she said, grinning. I must have looked confused, for she sighed
dramatically and asked, "Is the Bard lost?"
Wanting to get this over with, I kicked her while she was
distracted. It caught her solidly in the midsection, sending her
crashing against the wall. I howled as she pulled on my broken hands,
but she let go. Of course my body would succeed when I didn't want it
to. Still, perhaps if I put up enough of a fight, she would stop
mocking me and kill me. I ran for the door.
I forgot that evil has more than one face.
Darkness spawned her and darkness spat her into our midst. She was
skinny with jet-black hair, and a frailty that was a lie. Power filled
her slight frame, the power of suffering and oblivion. She held a
dagger before me, a dark one with green light dripping from it like
blood. A dagger she plunged deep into my chest.
I surrendered myself to oblivion... but he wasn't taking prisoners
this day. Screaming, I was taken by the darkness.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perdita
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"'O lady Fortune, stand you auspicious!'"
Excuse me? Did Kunou-chan somehow sneak up behind me? Someone
quoting Shakespeare was the last thing I expected to hear in the mighty
halls of the Kunou Foundation.
Of course, it's more like the skanky dungeon where I am.
Still, the line brought back memories I rather wished those
bastards had not recovered when I was 'saved.' Memories of evenings by
firelight, reading aloud Shakespeare's plays with--
Enough. There's no profit in the past. I had enough problems in
the present.
"Did you say something, Pai?" I asked idly, letting nothing of my
confusion show. It wasn't hard. Part of me was still immersed in the
network, doing my job. Pai sometimes reminded me of... no, let's not go
there, either. That belonged to Nabiki, and she's dead. I know, I
killed her. Let her stay dead. Perdita evermore. But Perdita will get
vengeance for Nabiki.
Who am I kidding? They put me back together, but they left out too
much of what I truly was. I thought, when David--block that thought,
too. I thought I could get back on the horse... well, that horse done
threw me hard...and a century is too long to 'get right back on it.'
As I was saying, I think Pai is a little disconnected from reality.
I've caught her HUMMING while jacked in, a happy little tune like...
let's not go there.
"It was a quote," Pai said from behind me. Curious. Usually
she'll have bounced into view by now. Another practical joke? I hoped
not. People said I didn't have much of a sense of humor when I was
Nabiki, but they should see me now. "From Shakespeare's 'The Winter's
Tale.' The one with the character Perdita."
"I'm not familiar with the play," I lied. Of course I was familiar
with it. I wanted to know where they got the idea for naming me in this
monstrosity.
Oh, most of my body is the original. Cybernetics is both far more
advanced and far less advanced than I thought once. And they were
willing to let me believe that. Laughing no doubt at my gullibility. I
had been SO impressed that I could still tan, I never considered that
the skin might be perfectly natural... vat grown, cloned, jacked into
neural enhancers and artificial nerves, but natural.
My muscles, too. They are enhanced by thin sheets of special
polymers that can increase their power almost a hundredfold... but the
initial 'push' comes from good old fashioned muscle tissue.
Perhaps the most altered parts of me are my eyes and ears, but even
there it's just the addition of cybernetic modules to the organic
components. The center of it all is a small chip implanted in the
center of my brain. That's were all the hardwired imperatives are and
the computer that runs me like a puppet.
But, I'm getting distracted. I must focus. Ranma. Once again,
he's at the center of this, even if only through a delusional clone.
I've checked. The techniques that allowed them to... preserve me, did
not exist when Ranma died. Anyhow, Ranma didn't sell his body to
science, like I did.
Though his father might have. I still remember all those people he
cheated coming to the dojo...
Perfect memory is a curse. I had a good memory before, but they
made it better. Brain chemistry, the tell me. Computer enhanced
recall.
"Enhancement." "Refinement." Those are the key words of 2096. I
had expected more. But this market is dead. There is no real
innovation any more. Dr. Tofu (may he rot) made many of the original
discoveries in cloning. Others made so many of the mechanical,
chemical, and digital discoveries that this era is built on... but they
were all in the early part of this century. Since then, the Kuno
Foundation and OnoCorp have stifled innovation. Nothing new. No new
markets. No original products. That could threaten their stranglehold.
If only Kunou-chan could see it. He had always scorned the
advancements of the twentieth century, while enjoying them
nonetheless... This really is his dreamworld.
Wool-gathering like an old lady. Maybe my mind is going. Wishful
thinking. If it was, they'd fix it.
Pai. Still hovering behind me. I replay her last words, my
'other' noting high stress tones. That sets off a warning bell. I
haven't lost all my instincts.
"I thought it would come naturally," she said. "Isn't that where
you got your name from?"
"I didn't 'get' my name from anywhere. It was given to me," I
said. I thought of spinning around, confronting her directly, but the
fear grabbed me. What if I was wrong again? How would she take it?
Would I blow the ONLY friendship I had in this time?
Tendo Nabiki wouldn't have worried. She would have gone with her
instincts, come hell or high water. Even if she made a mistake, she
could always correct it, with a little fast-talking. But I'm not her.
Sometimes I think I never WAS her. Wounded. Broken.
"True. Don't you wish you could choose your own name?"
Lighter in tone now, but till registering high stress values. Damn
it, she KNOWS I can read her stress factor. What is she playing at?
"Why, tired of yours?" I asked, stalling, putting off the
confrontation. I hate this. Pai, do whatever you're going to do! I
tried to look at her, but I was still jacked in, and they're too cheap
here to give us cords that were long enough. Jacking out too quickly
always gave me a migraine, too. Pai hovered just out of sight.
"Hmmm... it could be worse. But what about you? I mean, why
Perdita? I see you more as a... oh, maybe a Nabiki?"
She KNEW! How could she know? Everyone knew that Tendo Nabiki was
dead! Dead dead dead!
Perdita Tendo is just her purgatory.
I froze. Something sharp pressed against my skull and then it felt
like a bolt of lighting hit me on the head. Taser, no doubt. Faster
than even my self-preservation instincts. All those enhancements, all
those wonderful little toys locked up, forced to reset by the surge.
Consciousness also fled.
"I'm sorry," I heard Pai say, as from a great distance, before it
all went black.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shampoo
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pain.
That was the first thing I was aware of upon regaining
consciousness. The next was anger and hatred toward my opponents. They
had failed to kill me.
I was dishonored again.
My wrists were throbbing with incredible pain and my chest felt
like it was burning with every breath I took. The fact that I was still
alive said that either I had received immediate medical aid or the one
who stabbed me was very, very good.
"She's awake. Begin."
It was the voice of the fake Nabiki... Autolyca, wasn't it? Before
I could find the breath to ask what they were doing, my stabber stepped
into view. Her face was covered with some sort of dark make-up, I
noticed now, surrounding her eyes. I had thought them just shadows
before. She was holding a large hammer. My breath caught in my throat
as she held something on my hand, I felt it prick the skin, raised the
hammer high...
And brought it down on my right hand. There was a sharp pain, as
if something tore through my flesh and bone.
The sickening crunch, the fiery pain... then the horrifying
realization that I can't move my fingers at all. I want to look, but
I'm strapped to some sort of table, bound so tightly I cannot move even
my head. A bright light shines down into my eyes, drowning the rest of
the room into shadows. The dagger-girl slinks back into the darkness,
and I hear the fake's voice again.
"Shampoo, formerly of the Joketsuzoku, right? We do so want to
make sure that we're torturing the right person."
I open my mouth to speak, but only a feeble croak comes out.
"Speak up! I can't abide mumblers."
"Shampoo is Amazon womans..." I begin.
"Sicarii, the other hand, please."
I took a better look at my torturer. Something about her seemed
familiar. I couldn't place it. I did recognize the look in her eyes.
She was enjoying this. Her eyes studied my body, not the way that men
used to, when I was young, when they still found me attractive. No, she
was looking for where she could hurt me the most. She produced a five
inch metal spike and pressed the point against my left hand so hard I
could feel the blood begin to flow. Then the hammer was raised.
I bit down a scream as the nail pierced muscle, bone, and tendon.
When she was done, I tried to distance myself from the pain. Not
being able to move actually helped. The immediate pain would die down,
leaving a horrible, burning throbbing agony. I could feel the blood
running down my hand. Distance, distance. There is no pain. Keep
focused!
But I had nothing to focus on.
What was there left for me? Ranma had rejected me, the Joketsuzoku
were gone... they had exiled me, disowned me, anyway. My century
long... obsession had ended in failure.
"Finding it hard to concentrate?" Autolyca's voice came at me.
"Not surprised. Now, drop the bimbo act. I know you're capable of more
than that. Now, why don't you tell Sicarii about your magic? How did
you bring Ranma back?"
"I--"
"Sicarii."
Another nail was produced, and pressed against my right foot. I
wanted to move, do anything to prevent what was to come.
I screamed this time.
"Pitiful. No wonder Ranma-kun wants nothing to do with you."
New pain, this time around the heart. "What do you know?" I snarl,
but even to my ears it sounds as defiant as a wet kitten.
"I know a lot more than you might think. I know that you were
bound by law to either marry or kill Ranma, depending on the...
situation he found himself in... I know you spent a lot of time trying
to win him. I even know that your family killed him."
I wish I had killed Cologne now. Somehow, my shame has spread and
she's the only one who could have done it. I remember her screaming,
her eyes gone... I remember the terrible taste, how they squished in my
mouth... no, enough. Madness lies that way. I will not give into the
madness. I will be sane when I die.
Sicarii raised another nail. I wanted to plead with her, beg her
not to maim another foot, but I could see the anticipation in her eyes.
She wanted to hurt me. I have no idea why she drew such pleasure from
it, but I could tell that begging would only increase her pleasure. I
grit my teeth.
Oh, it hurts...
"After your family destroyed the Saotome and Tendo families, you
disappeared. Cologne wasn't much help on where you had gone... she
didn't see you leave, after all." Autolyca giggled at that. "Tell me,
what did you do with the eyes? I was always curious that they were
never found."
I say nothing. To open my mouth would let the pain out. The pain
is controlled. The pain is bottled up. I will control it, on my
honor...
Sicarii did my right elbow next.
My honor left me when she reached the right knee.
Amidst the screams, Autolyca kept asking me questions... I think.
I couldn't understand her anymore. The torture, the pain, it all seemed
to be happening to someone else, at a great distance. Instead, I saw
Ranma again, my love, staring at me... I heard his voice in my ears, his
accusation...
"Shampoo... is what Mousse writes true?"
"What Ranma talking about?" I had blurted, desperate. Mousse, how
could you tell him?
"All of it! Jusenkyo, dunking animals in my spring... your
daughter."
HE KNEW! Oh, Akane... Akane... you met your father after all... he
knew you...
I looked at Ranma. He was angry, but the anger warred with pity.
He pitied me... no, please Ranma... hate me, don't pity me.
"Yes, it is true, Ranma," I finally muttered, dropping all
pretenses.
He looked shocked. My language surprised him now? He's learned
I've killed him over and over, that I threw everything away to bring him
back to life, and he's shocked over my command of Japanese?
"Oh, yes, I mastered your language. Please, I HAVE had a century
to prepare for your return, after all."
"Why didja do it, Shampoo? Just because you loved me? You made
Mousse and... and your daughter suffer like that? You attacked the Old
Ghoul and..."
"I ate her eyes, yes." I mustered what defiance I could. "I only
wish I could have killed her, for what she did."
"Damnit, Shampoo, I ain't that important! I--"
I laughed bitterly at that. I must have sounded like Kodachi,
because he stared at me, his eyes bulging out.
"You don't understand," I finally said. "I had to do what I did."
My honor was at stake, but more than that. I had loved this incredibly
stupid man... did I still?
Spirits damn me for a fool, yes.
"Why, Shampoo?"
Such a silly question, Ranma.
I walked over and cupped his face in my wrinkled, aged hands. "If
you have to ask," I whispered, "then maybe I did waste a century. Woda
ai ren." I said. coming full circle. My lips must have felt as dry as
parchment as I kissed him. Then I looked in his eyes.
Pity... and revulsion. I was an old lady in his eyes, and he was
no more than a teenager.
Ranma, my love...
Another hammer blow brought my attention back to my torture, but
only briefly. It was like it was happening to someone else. It's all
unimportant, happening in a dark place while I hovered in the light...
Then Sicarii spoke.
"YUUKI KAMISORI!"
The light snapped off and a purple bubble surrounded me. I knew
this. It was spirit magic of some sort. I screamed as it closed in
around me...
Then there was nothing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perdita
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I came back online with a start.
One thing I hate about restarting is it is not a slow, gradual
process, like waking up. One second, nothing, the next, BANG, you're
up. It's like someone using a taser to get you out of bed in the
morning.
I lifted my head and looked around... and gasped.
I was in my room at the Dojo.
If it wasn't my room, it was a damn good replica. Bed, desk,
ledger. It was all there. I picked up my old ledger and stare at it.
Opening it, I found hundreds of neat entries, showing my profits (many)
and losses (few). The last entry was...
The date Ranma died.
This was not possible. The Dojo was demolished, long ago. There
was nothing of it left. This could NOT be the Dojo. I looked out the
window and saw what I should see. The yard, the koi pond, the streets
of Tokyo.
Except it's all an illusion.
My cybernetics could tell it's all an elaborate hologram. I felt
better. Someone slipped up...
Wait. They know I'm a cyborg, and what I'm capable of. Pai
kidnapped me in exactly the best way possible. So, why would they go to
all this trouble and make such a simple error?
Unless this isn't for me...
"Oh, my..."
Every muscle froze in terror at that voice behind me. Somehow, she
snuck up on me, I'm not sure how, since my enhanced senses should have
detected her... but she always was good at that. Slowly, I make...
force myself to turn and face her.
"Nabiki?" she asked.
Her name froze in my throat. She was DEAD! I should know. I
killed her.
Kasumi was looking right at me, one hand covering her mouth in that
ridiculous gesture of surprise Kasumi-oneechan always used.
Damnit, it CAN'T be her.
"Oh, VERY nice," I managed to snarl. "You're perfect, really...
but you can't be Kasumi. I know you can't."
"Nabiki, what--what's happened to you?"
Her voice. It's Kasumi's EXACTLY. Curse those damn memory
enhancers. I don't WANT to remember what she was like.
"You can drop the act!" I exclaimed, bringing one enhanced fist
down on the desk as hard as I can. It shattered. That made me feel
better. I'm not totally helpless.
Her eyes widened at that and she ran out into the hall. That
showed her. Who's trying to mess with my head like this?
Then she came back, with a broom.
I stared at her. Who on earth would come back to clean...
It hit me... and I crumpled. With a shriek, I collapsed onto the
bed, curled up in a fetal ball. My memory, enhanced though it may be,
is blank for who knows how long.
When I came back to myself, she was holding me, rocking me back and
forth, humming that same happy song that Kasumi always hummed when she
took care of me and Akane. I remembered Mother singing the same song,
when I was young.
"Is... is it really you, Oneechan?" I asked, hesitantly.
She smiled. "I think it's me, Nabiki... I don't know how I can
prove it to you... what happened to you? You've... changed."
Kasumi always was a mistress of understatement.
"Kasumi... what was the first thing I said after Mother... died?"
She blinked. "You didn't say anything at first. You locked
yourself in your room all night. The next morning, you refused to talk
about Mother at all."
"What was the name of my first stuffed animal?"
"Kaka-chan, a kappa doll Father got for you at a festival. Why,
Nabiki?"
"I-I had to make sure... it IS you..." The tears fell, regardless
of my wishes. "It can't be... it can't be..." I kept repeating.
She just held me. She looked just like she had when she... a
thought struck me. "Kasumi... what year is it?"
"Why, it's 2025, of course."
The year she... oh, gods... someone brought her here, somehow...
maybe using the devices the university had. Those didn't work very
long, as I recall... and this might be my only chance...
"Kasumi... I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..."
She blinked. "Sorry for what, Nabiki-chan?"
"I--I killed you."
I heard her gasp. A sudden sharp intake of breath. Had she done
any less, I would have thought her to not be a human being.
The whole story, in all its sordid details, poured forth. I told
her of what I did, everything. I didn't even leave out how I used
Ryouga. She frowned slightly at that. Everything, including the bomb
and how I wound up in this freakish half-life. She sat there, and
listened carefully.
"I forgive you, Nabiki."
I stopped in mid rant. "W-what?"
She hugged me tight. "I forgive you. It wasn't your fault I went
back."
"But... the bomb... I KILLED you!"
Her eyes met mine. There was fear there, but I saw love more than
anything else.
"How can you forgive what I did?" I croak.
"I AM upset with you over going to such extremes," she said, "but
you're my sister, and I love you, Nabiki. You didn't mean to kill me.
And you've suffered far more than anyone deserves. I only hope you can
forgive yourself... you're hurting so much, Nabiki..."
"Perdita... that's what they call me now."
"It's a lovely name."
"It means 'Lost One.' They used it to mock me."
"Nabiki... you're are the smartest of us all. You should know
better than this. You're alive, and while you're alive, there will
always be second chances. You have to believe in that, and work for
it."
"Don't leave me, oneechan."
Her eyes grew distant at that. "I don't think I'm going to have
much say in that, Nabiki-chan..."
To my horror, she began to glow blue. "Oneechan!" I screamed.
"I love you, Nabiki-chan..." she whispered as she turned
translucent and faded away.
I smashed my hands down on the bed, breaking it under me.
How long I lay there, sobbing, I don't know, then another soft
voice interrupted my misery.
"Ms. Tendo, may I speak with you? My name is Tei Buru."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shampoo
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wake up."
I woke. It was unlike any awakening I could remember. Darkness,
then a voice, then consciousness.
I felt... wrong.
Something changed. My skin felt too tight. Something was missing.
A nagging feeling, like chasing a memory that refuses to come. A void
that I could not see, like a blind spot, but could only sense
intuitively.
I was still lying on a table, but I don't think it's the same one.
I don't feel any pain any more. How much time passed?
The straps were gone, but I could not move.
"A brilliant piece of work, Dr. Sicky," came Autolyca's voice.
"Thank you, Dr. Licky." My torturer. Part of me cringed, wanted
to run, to hide. No more pain. Please.
"Let's see what our patient thinks."
A mirror hangs above me suddenly. In it is... me?
A young naked body. Full, luxurious mane of deep purple hair.
Supple, blemish-less skin. Muscle tone I have not seen since I was
sixteen. If that was me, she was lying motionless on a stainless steel
table, barely blinking.
"Oh, you're probably feeling some disorientation," Autolyca
continued, from the darkness. "That's understandable, since we took
your soul."
What?
"Here, take a look."
Autolyca stepped forward, into the light. She held in her arms...
a cat with a large black collar around the neck. Me. My cursed form.
It looked at me with curious eyes, eyes devoid of intelligence, but
still... me.
"I've never worked with a Jusenkyou curse before," Sicarii said,
still hidden by the shadows. "But when Autolyca told me about them, it
offered all sorts of possibilities."
Autolyca gently stroked the fur of my cat-body. "Quite simple,
really. We prepared a new body for you, thought it took a few days. I
hope you like it. It is biologically aged sixteen and we added all
sorts of toys... the next time you face Perdita, I think you'll be
pleased."
A cyborg. I was now a half-machine monstrosity like Nabiki.
Worse, for she still had her soul. I was a monster.
"Superior strength, speed, and--this is the important part--
obedience. We don't want you running off like 'Mommy Dearest' do we?"
I wanted to ask questions, but I couldn't move my mouth.
"If we let you talk, you'd no doubt be asking 'Why?' right about
now... Why did we do this, Sicky, dearest?"
"Because."
Autolyca shrugged and smiled, ruffling the chest of my cat-body.
"Good enough answer for me. Anyway, we prepared a body, then simply had
to inflict enough pain on you to make your soul... well, not depart, but
go on a temporary leave of absence. Surely you've heard of people
experiencing a distancing effect while under torture? The soul flees
the pain."
"I caught it," Sicarii said. "I could have crushed it, but we
distilled it... the personality and intelligence went into the clone.
The more important parts stayed behind."
"Then a little cold water and POOF! Instant witch's familiar. We
fixed her up while we were at it."
"I think she still wants to know 'Why?' Licky," Sicarii said, her
voice warming (a truly horrible sound with her) as she spoke Autolyca's
nickname.
"Demands, demands, demands." Autolyca threw her free hand up in a
dramatic gesture. "We wanted a... catspaw?" She giggled. "You, dear
Shampoo, will make an excellent assassin, tailor made for the target we
have in mind... Saotome Ranma."
"He does not belong here," Sicarii intoned. The voice of Death.
They were going to make me kill Ranma? I couldn't! I wouldn't!
"Stand." Autolyca ordered.
My body moved, quite independently of my wishes, leaping to stand
in front of the table. I had never moved so fast in all my life except
when doing special techniques.
"Turn around."
Again, I moved with no conscious control, turning slowly so that
they could see every inch of my new body... they look at me with more
than professional, if it could be called that, interest. Autolyca even
licked her lips.
"This is just a demonstration... it would be no fun to send you
against Ranma like this... and you'd probably lose. But, we have your
soul, and you cannot go directly against us. Any attempt to disobey our
orders will bring horrible pain. If you are too recalcitrant, Sicarii
will annihilate your soul. She won't simply send it on to Limbo. No,
she will shred it."
Sicarii licked her lips at that. My witch's sight was still with
me. I knew that she could do it. Worse, she would enjoy it.
"Do you know what it's like, to be without a soul, Shampoo?"
Autolyca asked, suddenly. "A soul is the heritage of every human being.
It defines them, links them all together. Well, look on my soul,
Witch."
I didn't want to, but the pain began. Horrible, agonizing pain,
starting in the head and then moving throughout my new body. My chest
was on fire, my limbs were burning... I could not breathe, I could not
think... so I looked. Still, I noted that she could not simply make me
use my powers... that was still wholly mine.
I looked and saw... nothing. A void. A fire-edged maw that
devoured anything that came close.
"You see it... I can see the terror in your eyes. Dr. Tofu did not
know what he was toying with, when he sought his vengeance on Tendo
Nabiki... he didn't know what he would create... do you know 'Mommy's'
story? She killed Kasumi, you know. Set the explosive and blamed it
all on Ryouga... Meant to do it when no one was home, but Kasumi went
back."
Nabiki? Nabiki did that? I had cried when I heard. Kasumi was
the best of us all... to die so senselessly. Nabiki's death soon after
made sense, suddenly.
"After 'Mommy' killed herself, sweet old Doctor Tofu decided he had
to have vengeance on her. She had to suffer... something I totally
agree with," Autolyca said. Then she grinned. "I just don't need an
excuse to make someone suffer.
"He tried many different things to bring 'Mommy' back. One of them
produced Perdita, who is, more or less, Tendo Nabiki, Me... I'm much
more and much less. He made a clone, combining Nabiki and Ryouga's DNA.
Why? They had a lot of Hibiki genestuff and... well, let's just say
they were experienced at using it. Then, he tried to use computers to
copy her mind."
Oh spirits... what did he do? What monster did Tofu unleash? He
created a Souless... some THING that has no connection with humanity.
Nothing but a growing nihilism at its core. A desire to destroy and
kill that will only grow.
"I remember everything, Shampoo, but I'm not Nabiki... I'm better.
I'm going to show you all that," she threw her head back and gave a
short, barking laugh. My cat-self yowled in fear. Then her mad green
eyes were on me again. "Everything's going to burn, Shampoo... and
you're going to help me do it."
"And I," Sicarii added, "get to watch."
"Front row seat, love," Autolyca rejoined, moving over to hug and
plant a kiss on Sicarii's lips. I could only watch as the two dueled
with teeth and tongues, seeking supremacy and not even stopping when the
blood began to flow. Then they turned to look at me.
"We're not done yet... she's not ready to go out." Autolyca said.
"I quite agree. Lie down on the table, Shampoo."
I moved without volition.
"Knives," Sicarii said.
"I say acid," Autolyca replied.
"Fire is better."
"Why not all three?"
What happened next... imagine being paralyzed, unable to move, not
even to scream and conscious throughout the entire experience. Then,
pain, methodically and diligently applied. The fierce slice of the
knife as they carve into my flesh. The hiss and sizzle of acid as it is
slowly dripped onto my skin. The crackle of fire and the smell of burnt
flesh. Above it all, the words of my tormentors, their giggles, their
supreme indifference to my pain...
"Careful! Remember, acid splashes. I want to preserve this line
all the way down."
"Sawtooth or serrated?"
"Use both."
"What about the lips?"
"Oh, leave them... how else can she give the kiss of death?"
"Time to de-claw the kitty, yes?"
I forgot. She used pliers then.
"Should we leave the hair?"
"Hmm... it IS her best feature... yes, on her head, at least. I'd
love Ranma-kun to come up behind her, and then she turns..."
"Does she need all her fingers?"
"Best leave them, love... her magic and martial arts are what we
took her for."
"How about a toe?"
"Take one... that shouldn't bother her."
"What about -these- lips?"
"Leave them, too... I'm sure we can find a use for them."
Finally, it ended. They told me to go to sleep. When I woke, I
was like this.
A monster. A soulless half-machine.
On my left side, I look just like I did when I first came to
Shampoo, so many years ago. A beautiful, exotic, young Amazon with long
purple hair and a body that could rouse a corpse.
The right side... could be that corpse.
It's like one of those medical charts, where they show the skeleton
on one side and the muscles on the other. A straight line, starting at
my forehead and bisecting my body neatly is the divisor. On the left of
the line, perfection. On the right...
White scars, acid pitting, shiny burns that will never heal. My
fingernails were torn out. My lips remain perfect, but you can almost
see the muscles work when I smile, the skin around it is so damaged. My
hair remains perfect, so I brush it to hide the right side of my face.
Except when they want to see it.
I train now, teaching my new body my art, preparing for when I will
kill for them. They have not made me do it yet. They want Ranma to be
my 'first.' They have done... other things with me, instead. I can't
help cringing when they come to me at night, for any reason.
Sometimes, they let me pet Tamashii, as I call my other half. They
call her Ariel. When I hold her, and she purrs, I feel almost... whole.
Her collar is their insurance policy, above and beyond even their
programming of my body, that I will not let her go free... it will
explode anytime they wish it, killing Tamashii instantly. What will
happen to my soul then, Sicarii has left to my imagination.
They took one last thing from me, before they were through. It was
the only thing I had not lost. I have lost my family, my tribe, my
Amazonhood, my daughter, my friends, my love and my soul. What more
could they take, you ask?
I am Caliban, now.
I hate Jusenkyo.
I hate Japan.
I even am beginning to hate Ranma.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perdita
------------------------------------------------------------------------
My hands were on her throat before she could blink. She was a
matronly woman, with gray hair and a face that went more towards
"handsome" than beautiful. There were lines around her eyes and mouth,
but her brown eyes were as hard as the earth. Purposeful, unrepentant.
How dare she? How dare she use Kasumi-oneechan like that? How
dare she put me through all of that grief again? I could feel the tears
in my eyes. She blurred before me as the tears escaped down my cheeks.
I didn't squeeze yet... not much, anyway.
"I can explain," she rasped out.
"Start talking," I spat out. I really didn't want to hear what she
had to say, but information has more power than even money.
"We had to make sure... that you were once Tendo Nabiki. We have
the nanban mirror."
I growled at that. Another reminder of my past. She was choosing
her words carefully, obviously frightened for her life and not wanting
to say the wrong thing that would cause me to snap her neck like a twig.
At the same time, she possessed a self-discipline that I found
admirable... it was a trait I had once.
"Ono Kasumi is quite safe. She has returned to her own time with
no memory of being here. We used Formula 110 on her."
Recognition. "You're Chinese Amazons."
"Of a sort."
I loosened my grip slightly. "Why did you test me? What did you
care if I was Nabiki once?"
"You know that after Saotome Ranma's death, Shampoo and Mousse
returned to China, correct?"
"I knew Mousse did... Shampoo simply vanished." For obvious
reasons. I had only seen Cologne once after that, and her sightless
face... it had haunted my dreams for years.
"Shampoo... has had her problems. She was exiled from the tribe.
Mousse was not, though he spent almost all of his time caring for
Shampoo. She was... not in her right mind." She swallowed and tried to
make herself more comfortable.
"No, really?" How much sarcasm could I load into those words? A
lot.
"When he did visit the village, he told tales of his time in Japan.
Many of the younger Amazons became fascinated with you."
"Me?" I was no fighter. Why on earth would any Amazon find me
admirable.
"Yes, you. A large number of us had begun to realize that the
elders' way of life was doomed. Sooner or later, we would be gone...
either wiped out by the government or dead through attrition. The
Amazon way of life had to change. You, the intelligent, manipulative,
ruthless businesswoman who followed a personal code of honor despite
what came... We made you the template of our new way of life."
I wanted to laugh. I was no saint. I had crushed my competitors,
ruined lives, ruined Ryouga...
You also took care of your employees when you could. You did what
you could to minimize the pain. You lost money at times to keep people
in their jobs. Besides, look at it from the Amazons perspective. They
don't want a saint... they want a winner. Which you were, once.
She continued. "We left the village, went to school, learned how
to survive in the world of business. We set up dummy corporations and
false identities to hide the fact that we were working together. Our
net worth does not approach that of the Kunou Foundation, but it is
substantial. We also have agents everywhere... like Pai. When she told
us of Perdita, we suspected that you were she, but we could not know for
certain. Your confrontation with Saotome Ranma--"
"The clone, you mean."
She smiled. "No, not a clone. We have not abandoned all our ties
with the old Joketsuzoku. Shampoo has spent the last century learning
of Jusenkyou. She has brought Saotome Ranma back to life. He shares
the body of a college student... but you know how a Jusenkyou curse
works, do you not?"
The room spun. My senses detected no unusual stress tones. She
was telling the truth... or what she thought was the truth. Could that
have really been Ranma? Was he alive somehow? I saw again the...
hallucination that had struck me down when I had confronted Ranma...
Ranma and Thompson, switching back and forth so fast their images
blurred together. Had I subconsciously seen it then? And the
computer's inability to track Ranma, like he was disappearing and
reappearing... a Jusenkyou curse could explain that.
I wet my lips, trying to make my suddenly dry mouth works. "Why
did you do all this? What do you want of me?"
"We want you to lead us."
I laughed. I couldn't even lead myself, and they wanted me to lead
them?
"The Kunou Foundation and OnoCorp are ruling the word in fact if
not in name. Every year, their grip grows tighter, their stranglehold
on the economy, on the people, gets worse. They are meddling with
things that could destroy all of mankind. Think about your
resurrection. Do you think the biotechnology involved can only be used
to bring dead businesswomen back to life? They can create bioweapons of
horrible efficiency. Sooner or later, they will wipe us out, along with
the rest of their competition. We need you. You're the best at
fighting this kind of threat."
"I am not capable of that sort of thing any more. I mean, look at
me now. A data pusher for the Kunou Foundation. They've wired me six
ways to Sunday to do what they want."
"We can help with that. 'The Vengeance of Heaven is hoist by its
own petard.'"
Nonsense, I thought at first... then ten million error messages
flashed across my diagnostics.
"What...?"
The error messages faded.
"I just shut down your self-preservation and hardwired
imperatives."
"How...?"
"We have the nanban mirror. It was simple to go back and influence
the committees that designed your programming. We put in a back door,
supposedly in case you ever got out of control, so that they could
capture you more easily. They'll need to operate on you if they want to
restore them."
Free. I was free of those bastards. I let go of Tei's throat and
looked at my hands. They were shaking. I was free.
With a deep breath, I stilled my hands. My options, formerly so
limited, were now countless. I could take Tei's offer. I could escape,
lose myself in the world. It could still be done.
Except there was Ranma.
If he was Ranma, really and truly Ranma, then I couldn't just leave
him. He was at the center of things, as usual. Even if he tried to do
nothing, he'd get into trouble. And...
He was family.
I have not had any family since Kasumi died. It was that lack,
more than anything else, I think, that drove me to blow myself up.
Ranma would have been my brother-in-law. I could see that. I always
tried to help Akane and Ranma admit their love, but it never worked, not
even when I was Ranma's fiancee. He was all I had left. The dummy.
That was what had been missing from my life. That was why I had
lost the will to fight. I had been a stranger in a strange land. What
did I care if the world of 2096 self-destructed? With luck, it would
take me with it.
Not anymore. There was at least one thing worth fighting for.
I'll have to be careful. I'll have to make sure it is Ranma. But now
there was something more than vengeance to live for.
"I'll do it."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Epilogue
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autolyca floated in the darkness. The darkness surrounded her, the
darkness was inside of her, world with an end, amen.
Opening her eyes, she saw a mirror floating in the void before her.
Looking inside it, she saw Tendo Nabiki looking back... then the mirror
shattered, the image cracked. The mirror now showed her own image,
splintered by the many lines.
A raven flew out of the Darkness and lighted on her shoulder.
"Remember," it said. And she did. Images of a father who was so
incompetent he could do nothing without crying. A sister who enslaved
herself for no reason to the needs of a family. Another sister whose
answer to any problem was to hit it. A macho idiot who mooched off her
family. The people and places of her life surrounded her, trying to
fill the immense void.
It all burned away in fire, the raven exploding in a shower of
light. Gosunkugi Sakuin appeared. "A failure. She is not Tendo
Nabiki."
"Who would WANT to be her?" Autolyca shouted back.
Sakuin continued as if she hadn't heard. "She might be useful, we
will keep her for as long as she is." The Executress narrowed her eyes
as she focused on Autolyca for the first time. "Failure is not to be
tolerated."
Nabiki appeared before Autolyca. "I failed. I killed myself out
of weakness."
Sakuin spoke again. "You will not fail! You will be strong!"
"I was weak," Nabiki said.
"Strength is everything!" Sakuin barked.
"You are me."
"You are not Tendo Nabiki!"
"You are me."
"You are a failure!"
"I failed."
"Failure is not tolerated!"
"I failed."
"Failure is not tolerated!"
"SHUT UP!" screamed Autolyca. "I wish you were all dead! I wish
everything was dead!"
Nabiki and Sakuin burst into flames, burning away in silence. The
city of Tokyo appeared, its skyline ringed by flames. Above it all,
another Autolyca danced, laughing as the world burned. Then, the other
took notice of the first.
"I will rule this world, or none," the new Autolyca said.
"Yes," replied the first one.
The vision of the burning Tokyo faded, to be replaced by the
darkness. Suddenly, Ono Kasumi appeared.
"Mommy is safe in the next world, Nabiki-chan," she said. "Her
soul has gone on to heaven."
"What if someone doesn't have a soul?" Autolyca asked.
Kasumi appeared stumped for a second. "Oh, my... I guess she
doesn't matter then. When she dies, she's gone."
"I DO matter!" Autolyca screamed.
"Death will be the end of you."
"I will carve my name onto the souls of so many people they will
fear me, even in death!"
"You do not matter."
With a scream, Autolyca woke up.
Sicarii, lying as naked as her partner in their bed, woke up with a
start. Then, she hugged her sobbing bedmate. "Another nightmare?"
"It gets worse... all the time, it gets worse."
Sicarii had been told by her lover of the dreams before. She tried
to comfort her. "Shh, love... soon we'll show this entire world that
you matter... that you are ALL that matters."
Autolyca calmed down a bit at that, and at the touch of her lover.
"Yes... and then the Collective shall follow, and all worlds with
them..."
"Should I summon our new toy? She should help relax you."
Autolyca snuggled next to Sicarii. "Not tonight... I want you to
myself," she purred, leaning back to kiss Sicarii firmly on the lips.
"Together, we'll set this world on fire, love."
"You don't know how right you are..."
========================================================================
THE END
========================================================================
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Well, as Chris said, this story has been a long time coming.
Originally I had thought to do two stories. One would be a sequel to
Gisei, creating Caliban. The other would make Perdita confront Kasumi
and learn of the New Joketsuzoku. As I struggled to write the first
story, it just wouldn't come. Then, the idea came to me to combine the
two. I put it all in first person and then Shampoo and Perdita were
speaking through me again.
"Kagami" is Japanese for "Mirror" and in this story I hold up a
mirror to both Shampoo and Perdita. They both are forced to see what
they have become. For one, she will spiral down into darkness. The
other will claw her way back into the light. But don't worry, their
stories aren't done yet.
This story helps set the stage for the end of 2096. Repent! :)
Jeff Hosmer
25 Oct 98
Jeffrey Paul Hosmer
jhosmer@ix.netcom.com
http://www.tass.org/~jhosmer/